Phillip Danault isn’t the only one in his family who grew up dreaming about playing for the Canadiens.

Danault’s father, Alain, was also a hockey player and a huge Canadiens fan. But Alain wasn’t good enough to make it to the NHL.

“He was a good player … for his beer league,” Danault said with a laugh after the Canadiens practised Thursday morning in Brossard.

Danault grew up in Victoriaville watching the Canadiens play on TV with his father. Danault, 23, said Saku Koivu was his favourite player, something he surely has in common with a lot of Canadiens fans about the same age as him.

“When he came back from cancer, it was a big moment,” Danault said about Koivu’s return to the Canadiens in 2002 after battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “I remember he was holding the torch and it was an awesome moment. A character guy, too. And he could put up a lot of points and, obviously, a good leader.”

Danault got a chance to play junior hockey for his hometown Victoriaville Tigres and he’s getting to play for his favourite NHL team. As a French-Canadian, Danault admitted he felt some added pressure when he first joined the Canadiens, but he doesn’t feel it now.

“I’m a hard worker, so I shouldn’t have any problem,” he said.

With the Canadiens off to the best 10-game start in franchise history (9-0-1) much of the focus has been on defenceman Shea Weber’s performance after being acquired from the Nashville Predators this summer in exchange for P.K. Subban. Heading into Friday’s game in Columbus against the Blue Jackets (7 p.m., SNE, RDS, TSN Radio 690), Weber is leading the Canadiens in scoring with 4-6-10 totals and his plus-14 is the best plus/minus rating in the NHL. It’s still very early in the season, but Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin is certainly looking very good after making that blockbuster trade.

The deal Bergevin made to get Danault at last season’s NHL trade deadline also looks pretty good. Bergevin acquired Danault from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann, and he also got Chicago’s second-round pick at the 2018 NHL Draft.

Danault has been a great fit on left wing with centre Torrey Mitchell and Brian Flynn on what is probably the best fourth line in the NHL. Mitchell leads the Canadiens with five goals, while Danault has 2-3-5 totals and Flynn has two assists. They are a combined plus-11 and all three are averaging more than 12 minutes of ice time per game.

“I guess our speed is our strength,” Danault said.

That, plus an impressive work ethic from all three players on the line.

Danault was a centre in junior and posted 23-44-67 totals in 64 games with Victoriaville during the 2010-11 season before being selected by the Blackhawks in the first round (26th overall) of the 2011 NHL Draft. Bergevin was the Blackhawks’ director of player personnel at the time and knew Danault well after scouting him in junior.

Danault said the first time he actually met Bergevin was just before the draft when he had a meeting with Chicago management. Somehow the discussion turned to apples — those type of draft meetings can be strange sometimes — and Danault said he couldn’t eat one because he had lost six teeth after crashing into the crossbar during a game with Victoriaville.

After the Blackhawks drafted Danault, Bergevin presented him with an apple.

“He said: ‘Now you can eat it,’ ” Danault recalled with a laugh. “That was funny.”

Bergevin has followed Danault’s career since then and wanted to get him in Montreal since he became GM of the Canadiens in summer 2012.

“Berg is such a good guy and, obviously, he works so hard, like everybody here,” Danault said. “He played a long time in the NHL, too. This guy is dedicated for his team and he wants to win, and he’s obviously a very good general manager. He always puts his players in front of himself and that’s what I really like about him.”

Coach Michel Therrien really likes what he has seen from Danault so far and expects bigger and better things in the future.

“We can’t forget this is a young player,” Therrien said. “We put him in a different position. He was a centreman when he came with us, we moved him on the wing. We want to get him used to the NHL.

“We like his improvement, but we still believe this kid’s going to get better and better, and that’s why it’s fun to work with young kids like that.”

The first person Danault called after he was traded to the Canadiens last February was his father in Victoriaville. Alain didn’t believe him at first. It couldn’t possibly be true that his son was actually going to play for the Canadiens, Alain thought.

“I’ve been dreaming about playing here and I’m sure he was dreaming about it, too, when he was young,” Danault said. “I’m proud to be here.”

Notes:Al Montoya will get the start in goal for the Canadiens in Columbus. Carey Price will be back in net Saturday when the Philadelphia Flyers visit the Bell Centre. … Andrew Shaw missed Thursday’s practice for family reasons, but made the trip to Columbus. … Forward Daniel Carr and defenceman Joel Hanley were called up from the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps Wednesday night.

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